I'm a little bummed to say that my days of having Sierra at the office are just about at an end. I'd cut it back to only 2-3 days a week anyway, but for at least the past month or so she'd been refusing to sleep at the office - I'd never had any luck actually laying her down, but she used to sleep for 2+ hours in the sling and then that stopped working. So I'd basically spend 7 hours just juggling her - nursing/dozing on the brest friend, sitting in her little chair for 10min increments, laying on her mat kicking in 10min increments etc. But last Thursday she had an epic meltdown and I couldn't soothe her and for the first time, my boss actually seemed annoyed/concerned about our neighbors. I don't blame him, the office next to us pays like 10k rent and I'm sure they don't want to hear a baby screaming ugh.

I get so frustrated because she sleeps without fail for like 4 hours when she stays home in the afternoon. So today I thought I'd try Howard's routine with her : swaddle + bottle right around 1pm. It worked like magic and I was sooo stoked and got her down in her little nest, but she only slept for a half hour and woke screaming. She tends to do that at home near the beginning of her nap, but if we just let her be for a couple minutes she always always stops and goes back to sleep. Of course, I couldn't do that so now she is sitting her alternately making whiny noises and grinning like a maniac.

so, another big transition's gonna have to happen. Howard has to get more comfortable with her fussing or outright crying in public so that he can continue to at least take Dahlia to the park etc - we're much less self-conscious about it than we were with Dahlia, but he still hates to feel like people are staring or judging. And I'm only able to pump 6oz total while I'm at work and she seems to need about 9oz, and I have no freezer stash anymore so we are forked (ok not really, just gonna have to use formula.)

That's really awesome that you were able to do it this long Audrey...I can't even imagine having had Freya at an office! She's going to start staying awake more and sitting up and all that good stuff soon anyway, so it might be fun for her to be home with D and dad.

thanks refinnej! although, who am I kidding, I'm going to miss her soooo much. It has been unbelievable to have her here with me to coo at and cuddle with all this time though. But I sure hope she doesn't start sleeping less! as it is, on days she's with me she barely naps, and then she'll sleep a 4 hour stretch in the evening and then its nurse nurse doze doze and repeat until morning. Ooof.

Wolveine has been taking unassisted steps too. He takes usually one but sometimes two or three. It's strange, he works really hard at it everyday and really wants to walk. He is kind of an adventerous dude and doesn't seem scared or anything but he stands up, takes a couple steps and then sits back down. He hardly stops walking because of a fall or anything. I think he just figures it takes too long to take a step and decides to do something else.

Freya is ten months old today! She is celebrating by giving up sleeping more than an half hour at a time. Mommy is so excited!

Still, she's a pretty neat kid :) Still no crawling, but she moves all over. Left her in the living room today for like 3 minutes and she had wriggled over and gotten some junk mail then wriggled over the to sofa and was tearing the junk mail into little pieces and carefully placing the pieces on the sofa (since that's what you do with mail, right?) Lots of steps holding onto fingers, some cruising and wanting to stand like all the freaking time, so we're guessing that crawling is going to be skipped for awhile. Figured out about 3 weeks ago? how to go from lying down to sitting, so now she thinks she's the bees' knees. Loads of babble and we're up to four frequently heard words now: pappa, dog, hello and (heaven help us) no. We weren't sure about no for awhile, but now she combines it with that toddler arm wave where it looks like they're trying to wish you away. "nonononono..." Oh my.

Other favorites lately include waving bye-bye closer to the time when we're saying goodbye. It was about a minute after we'd left, but now usually anytime a doorway is involved, she gets the idea. Lots of waving to shop workers, bus drivers, etc. after we're just out of sight. She's been clapping for a long time, well over a month, but now she is *really* into in and recognizes the word clap and gets very excited during songs involving clapping. Her other obsession is removing/filling..boxes, buckets, bags, etc. She spent twenty minutes today with a bag of bath toys that we were given, taking them out and examining every single one, then putting some back in. I hope this tidiness trend continues!

Oi, I know there's more recent developments, but they're slipping my mind. She's like a whole different kid that she was a month ago!

Best guess on her height/weight (with bathroom scale) is 31 inches and 27 lbs. Growth is really slowing down.

Going for another go at the bed this weekend. We wanted to try a couple weeks ago, but there was a business trip thrown in there, and then mr refinnej (who is sleeping in that room) starting getting these weird bites and we were afraid that there was some sort of infestation, to which of course we didn't want to subject Freya. Not sure what it was still, but seems to have vanished. (soooo worried about bedbugs, shudder)

She is just toddling up a storm - both in the house and outside - its all walking while screaming in joy. I don't think I am ready for this. Also, her reach is getting bigger and now the animals have lost many of their safe hiding places from her.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

it's been a while since i was here.... zahara is now 8 months old and clapping whilst standing for short periods of time. so cute!!!

and i have just bought a girasol wrap to carry z and it's so awesome and pretty. i already had 2 ring slings and a mei tai, so it's been hard to convince my partner that i *need* one, but i have it and it's gorgeous!!!

Walter has a little friend named Clara at preschool and they are so adorable. His teacher said they gravitate toward each other because the other kids are kind of loud and like to move, while Walter and Clara like to sit quietly and pursue their own little projects. When I dropped him off yesterday he went and sat next to Clara and they looked at leaves together. Cute!!

Don't make yourself wrong nnej! Its fine to vent. I couldn't even imagine being able to function (let alone hold down a fulltime job) with the amount of sleep you're getting and you are such a trooper to keep on going through all you and F have been through!

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Ada called me mommy three times today instead of mama. The last time was a very big kid like "mommmmy!" because she wanted me to sit on the couch with her so she could nurse.

aww Ada...Dahlia still calls me mama and H papa, but once or twice she's started to call me Mommy and I've been like "noooo". For some reason - probably because it's so baby-like - I really really prefer Mama, and I told her so. She'll probably start calling me by my first name any day now hahaha.

mittenmacher, glad for the update about Walter's preschooling. I was wondering how he was doing after you mentioned going to get him the other day - sounds like he's having some good days now, yay!

Carlos is 8 months. He still isn't crawling, but he creeps like a pro. He is still getting up on his hands and knees. He is laughing more now and laughed a bunch yesterday, which was super cute. I also got him to laugh again today! His laugh is kind of subtle, but it's still really cute. Recently he has been sick. He had pneumonia and an ear infection at the same time we were traveling by air cross country for my grandmother's funeral. It was ROUGH! He had a follow-up today though and was looking good!

Wow, Kimba, that's so rough! Glad he's doing better. (And seriously, kudos to you for managing with all that at once!)

Zephyr is now three months old already! According to our somehow sketchy scale (it's not nearly as accurate as the doctor's), he is somewhere around 18-19 lbs! SO HUGE! And his chubby cheeks practically drip off his face. They are the first thing people comment on when they meet him - "oh my gosh, look at those cheeks!" He's now reaching for toys and chewing on them a bit. Drooling like crazy, so I'm wondering if there are going to be some teeth coming in soon.

Izzy is being an awesome big brother. He loves Zeph so, so much! And he's started getting excited for kindergarten (next year!) - we have only just started talking to him about it, since we were planning to unschool him, but change of plans since I'll be returning to school for four years. He can't wait! So we're practicing some things we want him to know before kindergarten. We wrote the alphabet today, and I realized he is way better at it already than I realized! So awesome!

_________________when you realise how perfect everything is, you will tilt you head back and laugh at the sky. -buddha

Malka is 13 months today. She's on the cusp of running and she's also just learned to sit down and do purposeful play for a few minutes rather than just walk around with toys in her hands. She's also just learned in the past few weeks how to sit and cuddle with us and we now spend twenty minutes or so chilling and cuddling on the couch while her dad sleeps in for a few extra minutes before I have to go to work. This is a really sweet development. I feel like she's moving a bit less than she had been - she isn't just doing constant laps anymore, she'll stop and play with something now for a few minutes. This isn't to say there aren't constant movement hours or days. We just came from an event where she spent the entire time running around, like for 3 hours. Every time we picked her up she'd freak out that she wasn't walking around.

Giles purposefully reached out and took a toy from me today! He hung onto it for awhile and then decided he should try to eat it...I was beyond excited. I tried to get a picture to commemorate the event and discovered that the camera had no memory card in it. Boo. Giles and Zephyr and Scarlett sound like they are cheek triplets!

Grey is officially walking and nearly running! He took his time but now that he can he has loads of confidence. He still likes to hold my hand, although I can already tell those days are numbered and there will soon be epic battles as I try and steer him away from danger. He has started cuddling, like ariann described above! It's incredible! He is also playing more and more on his own for a few minutes at a time. I have never had a baby that would just sit idly by, he always wanted to be doing something - me holding him, so this is awesome. We are up to six teeth and I think I can see two more coming in, but he won't really let me look so I have to sneak glances when he laughs or cries. I am exhausted, but he is sleeping much, much better and for longer stretches. He will be 15 months on Tuesday!